Nicole
It wasn’t my first trip to Hawaii, but it was my first for the IRONMAN World Championships. It was also the first time I had an athlete race Kona. Her journey, as well as what a lot of what my days were like from a schedule standpoint are on the “Khem2Kona Chronicles” on 303triathlon.com.
But here’s the stuff I experienced outside of those posts…
As A Coach
The IRONMAN World Championships is definitely a special week. The excitement and energy cuts through the thick Kona air. For many athletes, this is just the icing on the cake; the hard work was qualifying. Of course everyone wants to have a great race in Kona, but truly the conditions make it quite the challenge.
I swam a little on the course the days I was there leading up to the race. Swimming in the ocean was great. It does take a while to get used to the salt water, and the swells/chop/current are different from Colorado lakes. It was nice to not have to squeeze into a wetsuit and still be comfortable in the water. Seeing the coral and all the fish swim beneath you is an added perk!
The heat is real. Yep. It’s hot in Kona. And humid. It takes a while to get used to. It’s like you are constantly sweating, and cool showers in the evening before bed were the best. (I grew up in Florida, so I remembered the feeling!) The condo we were in didn’t have air conditioning, which was typical. It cooled off enough with the breeze and lots of fans that I didn’t really have any trouble sleeping. But with the time change (-4hrs from Colorado), we got up relatively early each day. Athletes definitely need to consider the adjustment to a different time zone and how much time they need to acclimate to the heat.
Renting a bike was a great decision. With the condo being 1.5 miles from the race start, and all the key activities that are at the host hotel (Courtyard Marriott King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel) would get old, fast, walking in that heat. A quick bike ride to and from made getting around really easy. More people should do this!
The who’s who of the triathlon industry are out with their next year’s models. If you are in the market for something, Kona is a great place to get a good deal on the latest and greatest. Not only are these vendors out at the expo, they often sponsor “athlete appreciation” parties. I’m sure it’s tempting to attend as many of these as possible to soak in the experience, but it certainly leaves plenty of opportunity for athletes to be out on their feet in the heat for way too long. So choose carefully the events you wish to attend, and I’d say block time out of every day to get in a cool environment, to ensure you are hydrating, and to stay off your feet! And always have snacks and a cool beverage available.
All week I kept thinking on how I can better prepare athletes for both an IRONMAN and this race in Kona, as I do hope to have more athletes out here in the future.
As Media
The 303triathlon.com team was awesome. We work really well together, each with our own perspective. Our main goal was to cover the triathletes from Colorado. We had goody bags for everyone from Colorado, including singlets thanks to some great sponsors.
Dana was a trooper (she holds us all together!) as she had caught a pretty bad cold so I think would rather have been curled up in bed than out in the heat or the freezing cold media room. So what’s it like to be media at this big event? First, we had to get approved to get credentials, and there are different tiers of credential for different access. I was the basic level, green. We could get most places, just not inside transition (only the perimeter) or the finish chute. Technically we weren’t allowed on the media stands directly behind the finish line, ours was to the side. But during the slower times (after the pros and before the final hour or so of finishers) we had access there.
Then there was the media room. A banquet room in the hotel set up with tables, outlets, phone chargers, network cables, and two large flat screen (are there TVs anymore that aren’t flat screen?) That were streaming the live feed. The commentators for the race were set up in a tent outside.
Photographers on motorcycles would come back in the room to upload their images and get them cleaned up. There were many people with laptops and photo editing software. There were journalists updating their websites with the most recent race updates. As this is the World Championships, the journalists are international as well. We were sitting near a Dutch group, and every so often, one guy would give an audio broadcast (I’m assuming) he was talking into a headset microphone.
I missed the apparently entertaining episode of a feral cat falling from the ceiling. It was eventually caught and the story of the day for the media folks outside of the race events!
But beyond the access and media room to recharge, work, and cool off, it was up to us how we wanted to cover the event. We were all on the lookout for Colorado athletes. I was trying to capture the day in general and posted a lot to twitter. I did get to the finish to cover the pros finish, as well as the very end. Sometimes we were in pairs, and other times we were just out on our own.
Covering a race of this magnitude (or any IRONMAN for that matter) is exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. We live and try to capture the emotion of the athletes, all while experiencing our own emotion. I can’t wait for the next one (IRONMAN Arizona, Nov 15th in Tempe!)
Nicole
